Monday, 14 June 2010

sophie vale keating::june 9, 2010

our sweet little miss decided to come a week early and, really, i have to say i much prefer early to late. none of those endless days of waiting and i had such a perfect last day of being pregnant, with no idea that it was my last. maesey and i had a wonderful time at the cafe in the morning, just the two of us, we both had a nap, and then i did some solo shopping while she was at childcare, which was such a treat. i spent the evening going through two years of photos of mae, picking out the ones i want to print out and get into an album. this was the one task i had left to do before the baby came and it was so enjoyable, just super lovely to spend hours looking at mae's development and remembering all her baby times. little sophie seemed to know that my jobs were done and she could make her entrance into the world, i woke up just after midnight with mild contractions 5 minutes apart. i hopped in the shower and got out ready for shane to hook up the tens machine. i think it really helped with those early contractions, which continued at 5 minutes apart until about 4 or 5am. we were both very calm during this whole stage, shane snoozing a bit, and i was actually hoping for things to take awhile longer so we wouldn't have to call my lovely friend, maribel, in the middle of the night to come watch mae. my body decided to play along and contractions didn't really ramp up in pain until about 6:30am, when i phoned my midwife. talking to her, though, made me feel more able to cope and i thought i'd stay home a bit longer but by 7am i decided that we'd better get mae up and ready to be dropped off on our way to the hospital. we got there at 8am and were put into an assessment room to see where my labour was at. the midwife discovered that my hindwaters (i had no idea there were different "waters" but there you have it) had ruptured, possibly even days before, and after much drawn out chatting and discussion between the midwives, during which i was clenching my teeth and struggling through the contractions that were about 4 minutes apart, we finally went upstairs to the birth suite. i remember saying, as we walked to the elevator and a contraction hit, "and if i didn't know that an epidural was waiting for me, about now is when i would start crying." in our birth suite, the floor midwife insisted that my midwife do another internal to "make sure i was in labour" before she called the anaesthetist to administer my epidural. we discovered i was EIGHT CENTIMETERS dilated and that my main waters were still intact. i remembered how much more everything hurt once my waters broke last time and i really started to panic that i wouldn't get my epidural in time so i forced myself to calm right down and focus on slowing my contractions. i went from having strong contractions every three minutes to long, milder contractions every 10 or 12 minutes for the half an hour it took for the anaesthetists to get there. they were amazed that i was so far along and in such control and my midwife said she has never seen anything like it, the fact that my desire for the pain relief was so strong that i could actually practically stop my labour. the epidural was put in and i felt such a huge sense of relief and calm. it was such a different feeling than last time, which was all pain and yelling and wishing it would stop. this was warm and calm and sweet, my lower body felt a bit heavy but i could still feel the contractions mildly and move my legs and feet. we chilled out for about an hour and a half, i had a cup of tea (THAT certainly wouldn't have happened last time) and then my midwife suggested that she break my waters to get things moving. she did so and about five minutes later i felt the crazy pressure that told me it was almost time to push. i gripped onto shane's hand and two small and two huge pushes later, little miss sophie was placed on my chest. amazing. absolutely amazing and again, so, so different from my experience with mae. the epidural was brilliant, it allowed me to calm down and enjoy the birth of my child and i was able to actually feel her leave my body, which was indescribable. pushing still really hurt but nothing like before and when it was all over i still felt like i completely experienced the birth, just without the anxiety, fear and anguish i felt last time.

and now we are home and she's almost a week old, my mom is here and mae is being absolutely wonderful and i feel like it's all a bit surreal, really. i could still have been pregnant now, possibly for another week or more, and instead i have this sweet, soft, warm baby who feeds and sleeps and barely makes a peep. big sister mae has been so beyond better than i expected that i almost feel bad for doubting her. she has been so gentle with sophie, displayed no jealously (so far), comes looking for her in the morning and after her nap, is having a brilliant time with her dad and grandma, not even really noticing that i haven't had as much time for her (although i have been very conscious to smother her with love and tell her how wonderful she is many times a day). everything is just going so, so well and i feel so grateful. so happy to be here, on the other side : )

Congratulations! Such a sweet girl (and a pretty name)!And thank you for writing down your experience, I have only come across horror stories and it is really reassuring to know that it doesn't have to be all pain :)

What a clever mama. Thank you for telling your story, it was wonderful to read. Am so very pleased it all turned out so well and little Sophie arrived safely into the world. She looks utterly adorable.Katie

I am 20 weeks pregnant with my second & have been absoloutely terrified of the labour since I found out.

My first labour was with no pain relief whatsoever & even though I went into it with no fear & feeling well prepared (calm birth classes & all that jazz) I absoloutley wasn't. It hurt more than I could have imagined & I HATED every minute of it, except for that one when she was OUT & HERE, I loved that one... ;)

Your story has made me feel a hell of a lot more comfortable with the idea of an epidural, if I decide to do that, before I thought it was 'wrong' somehow, maybe like cheating...? But you sharing this has made me realise there is no reason we have to go through all the bloody pain if we don't have to, and, shock horror, we can actual enjoy the births of our children!

I am so so pleased you had such a great experience - sometimes I think the whole purpose of second children is to get right what you felt was wrong last time. So much easier to enjoy the good bits, the harder bits so much easier to keep in perspective. Well done, she is beautiful :-)

Wow, that birth story really is different to the last. So, so glad that you got the experience that you so sorely wanted. And also that this transition in your family's life is going so smoothly. Enjoy having your mum here! Can't wait to meet Sophie x

yay mama! oh how i wish i could go back and be more *present*... i remember so little. sigh. so. much. pushing. sophie is such a beautiful name, not so far removed from sadie! sophie and maesey. perfect.

Congratulations, what a wonderful story. My little boy is nearly 3 months. He is my third, I think bein in control makes a huge difference with pain, I didn't have an epidural with any of them, I was more scared of that than the pain. I love the tens though, and the gas.... So happy to hear you have 2 girls, how lovely. I have 2 girls and a boy, he was a surprise, we were told he was a girl. Love your blog and congrats again.

Congratulations to you and your family on another gorgeous girl. Isnt it nice to have a calm labour after an anxious one. I know that happened with my first, and then the second one was calm and completely different - I actually felt more in control the second time around and the pain was more manageable for me too. Quite a few years ago now but you never forget the pain nor the joy!

Yay! You're on the other side. Your birth story sounds so wonderful. After hearing you tell Mae's story and seeing your apprehension for this birth I am so relieved and delighted for you that it was so pleasant. Slowing down your labour? The power of the mind is amazing! Enjoy the newborn bliss. I'm not uncrossing my fingers until you tell me how easy and placid she is. I'm sure she will be. xxx

Congratulations - she is just utterly gorgeous. What a beautiful and joyous time you have ahead of you with your two lovely girls.I enjoyed hearing your birth story - especially with such a happy ending. I had a similarly peaceful and enjoyable second birth thanks to an epidural (after a shocking and traumatic first birth) and after such a blissful experience second time around, frankly, I could not love epidurals more!

Congratulations she is just beautiful. I'm so happy for you that the birth went well. I don't know about you but I had so much more confidence the second time around to choose and ask for things to be the way I wanted and I think that makes the experience so much easier. Enjoy the time with your family and all those special newborn cuddles.

Congratulations Leslie, what amazing gifts we're given, huh? You' are a wonderful Mummy, well done on sych perfect girls. I'm so happy for your family and we all send all our best wishes to you all xxx Missed you at Sewjourn last weekend, but your inspiration was alive and well when I made a freeform quilt for my baby bump. I dedicate it to you and Sophie and send my humble thanks for being able to tap into your creative genius last year. Love and Hugs!

Congrats. You almost make me clucky. Ha ha. My bub is 8mths and even though the first 8wks were hard I really enjoy having her. That's so good to hear that the epi worked for you. What a beautiful experience. You must have felt like you hardly gave birth at all. Hope you are happily resting and gazing at your little girl.

PS, just read the whole post now, I'm glad you had a happy birth experience! It's amazing what women can do in labour if they are left to focus, isn't it? being calm and not scared is such an important thing, wouldn't it be great if hospitals would recognise this... where I live they generally try and rush the birth, they are just so understaffed, and in the process make the mothers anxious and put them under pressure, resulting in lots of interventions. I'm always so happy to read positive birth stories!

I love to hear your thoughts, thanks so much for taking the time to comment! If you have a question to ask, I will answer it here (and by email as well, if I can track down your email address). I would love to reply to every single comment but until Blogger makes it easier to reply by email, please know that I am so happy you stopped by : )

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Canadian hands designing and creating in Melbourne, thrift shopping, muted colours, soft linen, wool felt, quilted anything, organic shapes in pottery, tiny seashells, chamomile, the patterns of wood, scandinavian design, Japanese craft books, line drawings, hand dying and hand printing fabric...
For years I designed and made under the name of onegirl designwrks but in November 2011, I decided to follow my love of hand printing and sumptuous textiles and launched Maze & Vale, my line of screen printed, original design fabric and the goods created with it.